Conventionally, a specimen processing device, including a plurality of specimen processing units such as a specimen analyzing unit and a smear producing unit and a conveyance device for conveying the specimen to supply to the specimen processing unit, for conveying the specimen to each specimen processing unit by the conveyance device, and processing the conveyed specimen with the specimen processing unit is known.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,290,907 discloses a specimen processing system including a conveyance line for conveying a specimen rack for holding a specimen, a rack inserting unit, a rack accommodating unit, a centrifugal unit, a dispensing unit, an analyzing unit, an opening unit, a barcode labeler unit, a closing unit, and a plurality of specimen processing units such as a specimen classifying unit, wherein the conveyance line conveys the specimen rack holding the specimen in a manner the specimen rack can stop at the instructed processing unit. The conveyance line of the specimen processing system has a configuration in which a plurality of partial line units that respectively forms a pair with a plurality of processing units is connected in series, wherein if the processing unit is shutdown or in a maintenance state, the specimen rack advances to the next processing step without stopping at the relevant processing unit. The conveyance rack includes a main conveyance path, arranged between the rack inserting unit and the rack accommodating unit, for conveying the specimen rack from the rack inserting unit side towards the rack accommodating unit side, and return conveyance path for conveying the specimen rack, as necessary, from the rack accommodating unit side to the rack inserting unit side, wherein each partial line unit is partially in charge of the main conveyance path and the return conveyance path. Each partial line unit is built in with a unit controller for controlling the operation in the own unit.
However, in the specimen processing system described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,290,907, the partial line unit has a configuration of controlling the main conveyance path and the return conveyance path with one unit controller, and thus the entire partial line unit becomes inoperative when failure occurs in the unit controller, the main conveyance path, or the return conveyance path.